


eyes as green as a fresh pickled toad

by Nillegible



Series: epilogue what epilogue [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Also Alice and Frank survive, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And proceeds to live as her, Basically Voldy Body-Snatched Lily Potter, But the greater wizarding world is characteristically blind, He's still super evil, Lily Potter becomes the extra Horcrux, Not a Tom Riddle Redemption Story, Sirius sees through it instantly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 22:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18200000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nillegible/pseuds/Nillegible
Summary: When Lord Voldemort finally wakes, after the mess at the Potter's cottage in Godric's Hollow, he is at St. Mungo’s. He is instantly sure that something has gone wrong, his body feels different, there’s a flurry of congratulations and condolences, by faces that should be cowering in terror not twisted in sympathy.It takes him a few minutes to work it out. They know James is dead. They think that Lord Voldemort is also dead. They think Lily Potter killed him.They think HE is Lily Potter.Lord Voldemort can work with thisWarning: Not a Tom Riddle redemption story! He's evil! But also no child abuse because I can't stomach it.





	eyes as green as a fresh pickled toad

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for major character death is because Lily Potter dies canonically. 
> 
> This story happened while I was breaking my head over another more important fic, because of my roommate. I was complaining about how I couldn't find a way to save Harry from becoming a Horcrux, to which her simple solution was that I should make Lily the Horcrux instead.
> 
> It wasn't a solution, but it was a pretty good idea.

_"Not Harry! Please … have mercy … have mercy_ … . _Not Harry! Not Harry! Please — I’ll do anything —”_  
  
 _“Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!”_  
  
He could have forced her away, could have stunned her, or used a body bind curse. He will forever wonder about the what if’s of this moment, though he doesn’t yet know it. The green light flashes from his wand and the mudblood girl drops like her pathetic husband. He can see the moment the child’s face twists in fear, the moment the child senses fear and starts to snivel. Voldemort points his wand right into the child’s face. He did not like it crying, it will be a relief to make it stop…  
  
 _“Avada Kedavra!”_  
  
And then Voldemort broke: He was nothing, nothing but pain and terror in the darkness, the child is still screaming, screaming louder and he’s twisted against the floor, only now he feels the strangest urge to get up and comfort him. His limbs are heavy, the world is dark. He cannot open his eyes. He smells dust and debris and something faintly floral, but no amount of struggling can get him to open his eyes.  
  
The infernal crying will not stop.  
  
When he finally wakes, he is at St. Mungo’s. He is instantly sure that something has gone wrong, his body feels different, there’s a flurry of congratulations and condolences, by faces that should be cowering in terror not twisted in sympathy. It takes him a few minutes to work it out. They know James is dead. They think that Lord Voldemort is also dead. They think Lily Potter killed him.   
  
They think he is Lily Potter.  
  
He does not tell them otherwise, just listens as they tell Lily about what’s happened while she was unconscious. “Where’s the child? My son,” he asks. With the Longbottoms. Dumbledore had placed him there for his safety, and was correct to do so, they say. The Longbottom manor had withstood an attack by the Lestranges, they tell him, who had been arrested and sent to Azkaban.  
  
The intense fury must show on his her face because they are quick to tell him that it was fine, Harry was safe, he was never in any danger.  
  
They waited to hold Sirius Black’s trial until she woke up, they tell him. “We all know he was the secret keeper, but he’s from an old family. If you would speak at the trial…” They tell her that he had murdered Peter Pettigrew (who screamed about his betrayal) and then he had laughed, laughed until the Aurors turned up to take him away.  
  
They give the child back to him, they ask if he has a place to stay. He had never known her family or friends beyond those he could potentially use to get near enough to kill her.  
  
“I will return to the cottage in Godric’s hollow,” he says, and watches them flinch and mutter, and prevaricate. It seems the house is to be made into a museum to celebrate Voldemort’s death.  
  
“Absolutely not,” he snarls, and apparates to the house he’d died in.  
  
It is not difficult at all to fix the house back up, not with magic, though he is very close to using an Avada Kedavra to destroy the child until it finally stops crying. He is at a loss. He cannot return to his supporters, half of whom were being rounded up and the rest trying desperately to renounce him. He cannot possibly approach them and admit that he is inhabiting a mudblood girl’s body.  
  
He looks at her face in the mirror, young and pale with glittering green eyes and vibrant red hair. She looks angry. Deadly. He widens the eyes and purses his lips a bit. Bites his tongue to make his eyes water. Better. Sirius Black’s trial is tomorrow. Lord Voldemort can work with this.  
  
He attends the trial with the child bundled in his arms, eyes red from careful rubbing, watering artfully. “How could you, we trusted you? How could you betray us?” he asks the imprisoned man and relishes the horror that dawns on his face.  
  
“Who are you?” asks Black, fury lending him clarity that grief had stolen from him thus far. “She’s an impostor!” he screams, “You’re not Lily, Lily knows we switched.” He screams and screams and Voldemort tucks his head down, pretending to be crushed at Black’s depravity but really it’s so that he can hide his smile. When he looks back up he looks suitably grieved. “James loved you, Sirius. You let him die. You sold him out.”  
  
They take him away in chains, raving all the way.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Also, if anyone DOES have an idea how to remove the Horcrux from Harry without Voldemort himself having to kill him (or even, any particular reason why Voldemort had to be the one to kill him?) or related meta that you can tell me/direct me to, I will be forever in your debt. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
